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Nest begins learning as soon as you install it. In a short time, it will automatically be adjusting your temperature based on time of day, or how active the house is. For the first few weeks you may need to adjust the Nest a few degrees when required, but eventually it will learn when you adjust it and will start adjusting itself automatically based on how you manually adjusted it before. See More
The Nest has a sensor that can be placed in other parts of the house to control the temperature but the only scheduling it offers for it is by pre-selected blocks of time (morning, evening, etc). If you need the thermostat to use the sensor at night until a specific time in the morning and then use the main thermostat you may not be able to if the time blocks don't fit your personal schedule. Seems like something that can be easily fixed through an app update though. See More
The Nest thermostat looks like a piece of tech from the future. It's fully circular and certainly looks the part of a smart thermostat. The display takes up the majority of the unit, and makes good use of its LCD display when not in use. It can display an analog or digital clock instead of the temperature if you prefer. See More
Nest also makes other products, such as it's Nest Cam, and smart smoke detector. Alexa is the voice assistant in the Amazon Echo line of products, and the Nest thermostat can be fully controlled by Alexa. This is important because Alexa can control devices through 100% hands-free voice support. IFTTT (IF This Then That) is an ecosystem to itself that allows users to create their own custom recipes based on triggers. For example, if it's expected to be humid, the Nest can automatically lower its setpoint to compensate for it. You can also configure other triggers such as location or time of day to determine when the Nest is on or off. See More
This version of the Nest includes motion sensors that can detect motion from across the room. Previous generations of Nest could only detect motion up to a meter away, but with this generation of Nest the utility is greatly increased. Motion sensing is useful, because it will sense when you are at home or if you are away automatically, without needing to adjust the thermostat manually. See More
The Nest Thermostat is the easiest smart thermostat to install. It comes with the required mini screwdriver, and there's a level built-in to make sure the Nest is installed properly. The included baseplate helps cover up any imperfections left from removing your previous thermostat. Installation is straightforward, and only takes about 10 minutes. See More
You will need to use the hub, which is another piece of equipment in your house. It also needs to be plugged directly into the router which means one less available port on the router. The requirement of the hub means that the range is limited, which could mean that the thermostat has connection issues depending on where it's installed (walls or far distances will lessen the signal strength). See More
Tado suggests you get the wiring done professionally. While it's convenient that there is a conversation between you and Tado to figure things out ahead of time - making sure the installation itself goes well - it's inconvenient that you need to have it set up professionally when the other major thermostats can usually be wired with relative ease. See More
Based on your location, the Tado thermostat can automatically determine when it needs to be on and when it can stay in idle mode saving power. This location data isn't monitored by a motion sensor - instead it uses your phone's location so that by the time you arrive home it should already be a suitable temperature. See More
While the UI is very functional, it appears cluttered as it tries to display a bunch of information all on the same display. On the main screen, there are 4 tabs on top, two buttons to adjust the setpoint, and it displays the current indoor temperature as well. On the left it displays current information such as date, time, weather conditions, and the status of the system. Some will appreciate this layout for its functionality, but others will find it cluttered and not appealing. See More
The Lyric can turn on and off based on your location (or, more specifically, your phone's location). By default, this geo-fence is 7 miles, giving the thermostat enough time to get the back to a comfortable temperature. This can be changed, all the way down to 500 feet if you have a short commute. See More
The geo-fence feature can sometimes set the thermostat to 'away' while you're still in the house. Notifications also don't always make it through, as sometimes all you get are generic looking error messages. These bugs are likely to be fixed through future software updates, however currently they come as part of the product. See More
While other smart thermostats let you use the thermostat itself for virtually any adjustments, the Netatmo Thermostat only displays the setpoint temperature (in bold black) and the current temperature (outlined). The display is E-ink, which doesn't look as good as good as LCDs and can't display colours. Also, there is no backlight making it impossible to see with the lights off. See More
After a couple weeks of learning, you can switch to a PID (proportional integral derivative) control. This uses predictive and learned behavior to provide the best heating experience possible. PID control looks at weather conditions, and adjusts its cycling to compensate for it. For example, if a sudden cold front is expected, the system will turn on earlier than normal to ensure the temperature stays at a comfortable level. Also, PID takes into consideration your house's insulation properties, which let it perform better than merely waiting until the temperature reaches the upper/lower setpoint values. See More
Because each Eve Thermo is assigned to a single room, it can accomplish a steadier temperature than a single central thermostat. You can assign each room to a different schedule, for example your bedroom heater can be turned off during the day while the rest of your house receives the heat instead. See More
The Eve Thermo is physically small, and plugs into your heaters which are usually hidden out of sight. This allows it to discreetly add smart heating to your house without creating an eye-sore on a prominent wall. If the device is in a location where it will be seen however, it looks very sleek with it's polished white colour and rounded square design. See More
The Eve Thermo only connects to a single heating element. That means that for your entire house to be heated this way, you'd need one Thermo for every room in your house - at which point it would be much more cost-effective to get a single smart thermostat. The Eve Thermo is better suited as a complementary device - one that is installed alongside your current (or future) thermostat. The Eve Thermo works very well when it comes to regulating temperature in a tricky room (where a normal thermostat leaves it either too warm or too cold), and that is where it excels. See More
The Eve Thermo only connects via Bluetooth, and has a short range (~4 meters). You won't be able to adjust the temperature from outside the room, unless you have an Apple TV 3rd gen (the Apple TV hooks up to the Thermo, and allows control through Wi-Fi which can be accessed and adjusted from anywhere in the world with an internet connection). See More
Because the screen is so small and pixelated, very little can be displayed on the screen at one time. This forces the menus to be longer, which requires more button presses to scroll down and then select the action, and then finally adjust it. It would also be helpful if text was used instead of just icons, as then you'd never have to guess what an icon represents. See More
As of right now (future updates could change this), the iDevices thermostat doesn't provide any compelling reason to choose it over any other HomeKit thermostat. It doesn't add any features of its own - instead it only has features provided by HomeKit itself which are present on many other thermostats. The screen is small and pixelated, and it still uses buttons instead of a touchscreen. It also looks more like a standard thermostat than the others. Overall, the iDevices thermostat may be the cheapest option, but it's very uninspiring. See More
While this thermostat is very feature-light at the moment, Bluetooth hardware is present which will allow for more features in the future. Geo-fencing and pattern recognition software are two features currently in development, however the other thermostats already offer these features and more. See More
Wiring the iDevices Thermostat requires a small precision screw driver (not included), and unlike many other smart thermostats it doesn't automatically detect which HVAC system you have (you will need to look that up, whether it's gas or electric fired, and potentially what kind of pumps and valves are used). The whole installation process is a lot more involved than other smart thermostats. See More